Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning (1973) torrent

Michael Dunford, who had been working with Renaissance in a composer-only role, had rejoined the band by the time this album was released. However, he wasn't officially part of the band when the album package was designed, so he doesn't appear in the cover photos and is listed as a guest musician.

The song "Can You Understand?" uses a quote from "Tonya and Yuri Arrive at Varykino", a theme from Maurice Jarre's score for Doctor Zhivago.[2] According to David Samuel Barr, a friend of the band who wrote the liner notes for the Tales of 1001 Nights compilation, Dunford had thought this melody to be a public domain Russian folk tune.[3] Because of confusion over the Jarre quote, some live collections (including Live at the Royal Albert Hall : King Biscuit Flower Hour Vol. 1[4] and some unauthorized releases) mistakenly credit "Can You Understand?" entirely to Jarre.

The song "On the Frontier" was previously released (also in 1973) by former Renaissance member Jim McCarty's band Shoot. It was the title track of their only album.[5]

The lyrics for "Carpet of the Sun" printed on the LP's inner sleeve included an extra verse which is not sung on the recording. The verse begins with "Come along and try, looking into ways of giving. Maybe we will try, find a dream that we will live in".

It was the band's first album to make the Billboard 200 album chart, peaking at #171.

FLAC

Renaissance

Ashes Are Burning

1973

CD - No Artwork

"Can You Understand?" - 9:51
"Let It Grow" - 4:14
"On the Frontier" (McCarty-Thatcher) - 4:55
"Carpet of the Sun" - 3:31
"At the Harbour" - 6:48
"Ashes Are Burning" - 11:20